Of course Plus, I have always wanted to start an "official thread" following in the footsteps of Brandon (nuance)

Brandon,

Those are big shoes to fill but I'm sure you are up to the task. I look forward to more information on the Ascend Tower. I hope you are one of the first owners as you have been patiently waiting. I wonder if the Tower will come in a Dark Cherry finish as I still have my Sierra center. You never know and I want to be prepared.

There are some drivers that use a "fake" phase plug where the plug is part of the speaker cone and moves with it. A "real" phase plug is part of the pole and doesn't move.

thanks for the link. so the top driver is the midrange and the two bottom drivers are woofers? i was wondering because they appear to be the same size and i thought the woofers were typically larger than the midrange.

thanks for the link. so the top driver is the midrange and the two bottom drivers are woofers? i was wondering because they appear to be the same size and i thought the woofers were typically larger than the midrange.

Actually, in this case, the midrange is a bit larger than the woofer.

While size does play a part, it is the overall design of the driver that dictates its usage.

First I think they look horrible post... They must sound awful... And with the stained bamboo (they will be bamboo?), who would want to get a pair of those? Not me... Well... Kinda... Get out of my head you... you... towers you!!!

Nah, I'm ok, really, the NrT upgrade should be more then adequate for me!
(if not obvious, this post was sarcastic, I think they look great. Also that's not the final finish & does not represent the quality of the final design and yada yada)

Those are big shoes to fill but I'm sure you are up to the task. I look forward to more information on the Ascend Tower. I hope you are one of the first owners as you have been patiently waiting. I wonder if the Tower will come in a Dark Cherry finish as I still have my Sierra center. You never know and I want to be prepared.

Bill

Bill,
I have been very patient and waiting very long as you know. I believe I will be the first owner. Dave has been very gracious and has answered all my questions and concerns over the last year or so while his design went from an idea to final product. I am glad I chose to wait, the towers sounds promising...pun intended As for finishes, I believe Dave is contemplating several options, I believe the more he offers, the higher the costs. If anything, maybe folks who want a different finish option can just pay the difference over the "standard" finish. You might be glad you kept your sierra center who knows, we might see those Song towers on audiogon soon

Check back after this Saturday, Dave is hosting another listening session and I imagine the black pair shown above will sound even better than the prototype did several months back(due to numerous tweaks).

Bill,
I have been very patient and waiting very long as you know. I believe I will be the first owner. Dave has been very gracious and has answered all my questions and concerns over the last year or so while his design went from an idea to final product.

Brandon,

I think you first nudged me over 2 years ago with regard to this speaker .

It has indeed been a long time coming and we are not quite there just yet.almost. Sadly, the fun part (for me at least) is over and design/engineering work is now replaced with manufacturing and logistics.

Yes -- you will indeed have the very first pair and if not for your weekly emails, this exciting new loudspeaker would not exist.

Thanks for your continual encouragement and when you finally do get the speakers, I hope you absolutely LOVE them.

any particular reason why the tweeter is between the mids and the woofers and not on top like most usually seen? MTWW vs TMWW? Curtis earlier mentioned it might have to do with OPPIX, but does it really use OPPIX and if so, does orientation of TM really make a difference?

Excellent question!

There are a few reasons for this orientation.

First off, it was important for us to keep the acoustic center of the critical tweeter and mid combination as close to the lower woofers as possible. This type of orientation allows for tighter phase integration between all of the drivers and is closer to acting like a single point source as compared to the more common TMWW. In addition, for most listeners, the acoustic center will be at or very close to ear level.

Another key aspect is that the midrange driver is housed in its own critically damped sealed enclosure, the volume and damping of which is carefully controlled to obtain a specific acoustic rolloff and Q. Assuming the same dimensions for the cabinet, in a TMWW design, if the midrange driver was to have the exact same enclosure volume, it would take up some of the cabinet volume the woofers would require thus we would either have to make the cabinet taller or settle for slightly less bass extension.

And finally, this orientation provides more vertical directivity and a more symmetrical vertical off-axis response than a TMWW design, thus reducing ceiling and floor reflections, but with a considerably wider vertical listening window compared to an MTM design. An MTM design will have greater vertical directivity but will also exhibit off-axis lobing, which is not consistent with mimicking the response of a single point source. The MTWW design was the perfect solution and retains much of the off-axis characteristics of the Sierra-1, thus keeping the speaker in the same family

The imaging of this speaker is remarkable yet it is not at all fussy about placement.

Hope this makes sense!

So sealed mid is interesting, as well as the inverted tweeter which we've started to see from a few companies like Vienna or PSB, good stuff!